In a smaller community with a tighter labor market, one issue comes up again and again: whether your treating provider’s restrictions actually fit your job.
If you can’t safely perform your usual duties—whether that’s lifting, prolonged standing, moving around job sites, driving a route, or maintaining pace in physically demanding roles—the insurer may treat your wage loss differently. AI tools may use broad assumptions about “missed time” or “severity,” but they can’t see the specifics of:
- what your doctor wrote in your work status reports
- whether you could perform modified duty
- how your restrictions changed over time
- whether the restrictions were consistent with objective findings
That’s why an AI estimate is best viewed as a starting point—not a prediction.


